Morgan Stanley förutspår att Kinas stålproduktion kommer att nå sin topp under 2015 för att sedan successivt avta, ett tecken på att landets ekonomiska modell är under förändring. Steel output in the world’s top producer will peak at 806 million metric tons this year, drop to 801 million tons in 2016 and decline further to 795 million tons in 2017, the bank said in a commodities report on Monday. The comments reiterated remarks made by the bank’s analysts in a Dec. 16 note.

Som VFL har uppmärksammat har Kina under det senaste året satsat på cyberdiplomati och främjandet av en modell för ett internet styrt med hjälp av nationella lagar och regionala överenskommelser. Over the past year, Beijing has become ever more assertive in promoting “Internet sovereignty”—its right to control the Internet within China’s borders, fitting “brakes” to ensure that it “becomes Ali Baba’s treasure cave for humankind, and not Pandora’s box.” Since the start of 2015, authorities have pushed even harder to realize this vision at every level from international norms and Internet traffic down to software and the hardware it runs on.

Historikern Roderick MacFarquhar menar att Xi Jinping är kommunistpartiets starkaste ledare sedan Mao Zedong, eftersom han valts som ledare inom ett parti där beslutsprocessen blivit alltmer institutionaliserad. Till skillnad från både Deng Xiaoping, som kom till makten efter en maktkamp inom partiet, och sina föregångare Hu Jintao och Jiang Zemin, som valdes ut av Deng Xiaoping, har Xi Jinping valts av sina partikollegor. In the case of Xi Jinping, he has this unique aspect that he was chosen by his elders and peers and none of his colleagues were. In other words, they were all open to be chosen. He got chosen. That gives him the kind of prestige that Mao had in 1936, when he started his rise to power after all the others, [the late prime minister] Zhou Enlai and others, now forgotten, had their chance of leadership and failed. So I think that Xi Jinping is more powerful than Deng because he doesn’t have people of equal status who are able to challenge him because of their past record. He won out in the lottery for the leadership.

Premiärminister Li Keqiang har godkänt påskyndandet av 300 infrastrukturprojekt, till ett sammanlagt värde av sju biljoner yuan, under 2015. Förhoppningen är att satsning på infrastruktur ska förhindra att tillväxten avtar allt för hastigt. Premier Li Keqiang’s government approved the projects as part of a broader 400-venture, 10 trillion yuan plan to run from late 2014 through 2016, said people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified as the decision wasn’t public. The National Development and Reform Commission, which will oversee the projects, didn’t respond to a faxed request for comment.

Förvaltningen i Hongkong presenterade under gårdagen den rapport till Beijing som man hade lovat demonstranterna i proteströrelsen Occupy Central. Den 155 sidor långa rapporten har titeln ”Report on the Recent Community and Political Situation in Hong Kong” och finns tillgängligt som PDF. Men rapporten innehåller inga indikationer om att myndigheterna skulle gå demonstranterna till mötes. Mr. Leung, the chief executive, said there would be a new round of public consultations on the election plans but any suggestions had to follow the Basic Law, the framework that established Hong Kong’s status as a special region under Chinese sovereignty. China has said the Basic Law rules out the protesters’ demand that members of the public have a more direct say in nominating future candidates for Mr. Leung’s job. The chief executive is now chosen by an elite committee loyal to Beijing. “Nothing can coerce the central and special administrative region government,” Mr. Leung said on Tuesday, according to his website. “Because Hong Kong is, I repeat once more, a society of rule of law.”

Är det verkligen länder som Kina och Ryssland som utgör det främsta hotet mot ett fritt internet? Eller är deras cybernationalism, där fokus ligger på ökad nationell suveränitet på internet, bara en reaktion på en amerikanskt internetimperialism där USA:s dominanta ställning i cyberspace säljs med falskt klingande hänvisningar till fri konkurrens, individens frihet och universella rättigheter. However, Russia, China and Brazil are simply responding to the extremely aggressive tactics adopted by none other than the US. In typical fashion, though, America is completely oblivious to its own actions, believing that there is such a thing as a neutral, cosmopolitan internet and that any efforts to move away from it would result in its “Balkanisation”. But for many countries, this is not Balkanisation at all, merely de-Americanisation. US companies have been playing an ambiguous role in this project. On the one hand, they build efficient and highly functional infrastructure that locks in other countries, creating long-term dependencies that are very messy and costly to undo. They are the true vehicles for whatever is left of America’s global modernisation agenda. On the other hand, the companies cannot be seen as mere proxies for the American empire. Especially after the Edward Snowden revelations clearly demonstrated the cosy alliances between America’s business and state interests, these companies need to constantly assert their independence – occasionally by taking their own government to court – even if, in reality, most of their interests perfectly align with those of Washington.

Juristen Teng Biao avfärdar partipropagandan om lagstyre och hävdar att termen innebär mycket lite i den kinesiska kontexten. Together with things such as the Three Represents and Harmonious Society, “governing the country according to the law” is Communist Party’s yet another attempt to address the crisis of legitimacy. These slogans have gone quite a way in reaching the Party’s goal of tricking people within China and the international community. However, legitimacy in contemporary politics can only come via the recognition given through free elections. But the Communist Party wants to cling to one-party rule, and it completely rejects general elections, even in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It’s not difficult to understand why that real rule of law would necessarily mean the end of the one-party system. This is the limitation on the legalization process that began in the late 1970s that cannot be overcome.

Den obehagliga retoriken fortsätter att dominera i det kinesiska kriget mot terrorismen. Vi kan antagligen förvänta oss fler summariska rättegångar och fortsatt religiös repression under 2015. Den avslutande brasklappen indikerar viss återhållsamhet, men det är nog naivt att tro att det skulle vara mer än en eftertanke. Time and again, terrorism has taken its toll. To fight such crimes, China has waged a ”people’s war” on terrorism, using every force in its power to deal a crushing blow to terrorist activities /…/ Pan said more civilians from different ethnic groups join the counter-terrorism campaign. Their behaviors once again show that terrorists are the enemies of all people. ”The war on terrorism should be led by the government and widely participated in by the public,” said Mei Jianming, who added as long as the country mobilizes resources at all levels, the war can be won. /…/ The war on terrorism should be waged in accordance with law, and people’s legitimate rights including freedom of expression and privacy should also be protected, Mei said.

På julafton och juldagen gav sig demonstranter återigen ut till kvarteret Mong Kok, Hongkong, för att protestera mot bristen på ”verklig demokrati”. Polisen grep sammanlagt 49 personer i samband med demonstrationerna. The police said in a statement that protesters blocked five roads over Thursday night in the Mong Kok neighborhood and disobeyed police orders to disperse. Those arrested were aged from 13 to 76 /…/ The Facebook page of a pro-democracy activist group called Hong Kong Shield said that over the two nights protesters sang politically themed songs and held the umbrellas that have become a symbol of their movement. Some in the crowd wore red Santa Claus hats and chanted “I want true democracy” in Cantonese.

Bakom all den bombastiska retoriken om en ”kinesisk dröm”, tycker historikern Jeffery Wasserstrom sig se ett nervöst ledarskap som fortfarande plågas av mardrömmar om studentprotesterna vid Tiananmen, Sovjets fall och den Arabiska våren. Beijing’s handling of the Hong Kong situation was the latest illustration of the party’s fear that its grip on the national rejuvenation package is weaker than outsiders sometimes imagine. What was striking was not just the party’s refusal to make concessions to the protesters, but the lengths to which it went to control information about, and even photographs of, the Hong Kong protests from flowing into the mainland — and to present a locally rooted popular movement as the brainchild of foreign conspirators.

Qian Gang sammanfattar hur den politiska retoriken sett ut i den kinesiska pressen under det gångna året. Särskilt intressant, med anledning av kommunistpartiets fjärde plenum om lagstyre, har debatten om konstitutionalism varit. The biggest discourse incident of 2014 was the disappearance for a time of a pair of phrases President Xi Jinping gave some degree of emphasis soon after becoming the General Secretary of the CCP. Those terms are: “ruling the nation in accord with the constitution” (依宪治国) and “governing in accord with the constitution” (依宪执政). The terms re-emerged in September this year, following many months of chilly in-fighting over constitutionalism and its relevance for China /…/ On the very day the brief communique was released at the Fourth Plenum (in advance of the full “Decision”), a number of important websites in China ran an article with the headline, “‘Governing in Accord with the Law’ Cannot be Confused with Western Constitutionalism” (依宪执政与西方「宪政」不容混淆). The article set the rather subdued tone for understanding the notion of “governing in accord with the law.”

I en ledare uppmanar finansmagasinet Caixin oss att fundera på hur användbart det är att bedöma ekonomins utifrån BNP-tillväxt, en fråga som har att göra både med ”omvandlingen av landets modell för utveckling” och ”det ethos enligt vilket det styrs”. To enable change, some scholars have proposed doing away with the growth target in the 13th Five-Year Plan to focus official efforts on raising per capita GDP. One former senior official even suggested the government could stop releasing GDP numbers itself and leave the job to research centers in the private sector. The leadership will have to decide how best to solve this problem. Whatever the solution picked, for China – today the world’s second-largest economy – putting less emphasis on GDP figures and more attention on inclusive growth and ensuring social justice is the better development route. Less emphasis on GDP growth does not imply a lighter workload for the government, however; just the opposite. To ensure China’s long-term development, officials must double their efforts to institute reforms.

Efter elva veckors protester avlägsnade polisen under måndagen protestlägret i området Causeway Bay, det var det sista lägret att utrymmas och insatsen kan därför sägas markera slutet för Occupy Central, men med största sannolikhet kommer protesterna i Hongkong att fortsätta under andra former. Within 30 minutes of the police moving in, the last tent was pulled down, and trucks mounted with cranes were brought in to clear debris from the road, while clusters of protesters shouted from the sidewalk. The camp at Causeway Bay was by far the smallest, and the least volatile, of the street occupations that sprang up across Hong Kong on Sept. 28. That day the police’s use of tear gas and pepper spray to disperse student protesters around the city government headquarters backfired, and tens of thousands of people took to the streets in anger, also demanding that the government heed their calls for democratic voting rights.

Den juridiskt komplicerade situationen i Hongkong — en ”särskilt administrerad region” underställd regeringen i Beijing men som ska styras i enlighet med en egen kvasi-grundlag — öppnar upp för den kinesiska regeringen att utnyttja gråzoner och kryphål för exempelvis övervakning. Simon Young, a professor at the University of Hong Kong law school, said that any mainland-orchestrated surveillance would be seen locally as a significant breach of the spirit of non-interference in Hong Kong affairs. But it would be hard to prove that this amounted to a violation of the territory’s “one country, two systems” model. Young said there are loopholes in the Basic Law under which Hong Kong is governed and scenarios in which Chinese officials could cite a need to protect national security. “It is going to be tough to win a one country, two systems argument,” he said. “It would be more effective to consider the issue from the perspective of individual rights.”

Under lördagen höll Kina sin första nationella minnesdag för massakern i Nanjing, då hundratusentals (300,000 enligt officiella kinesiska källor, mellan 100,000 och 300,000 enligt Encyclopedia Brittanica) människor mördades efter att staden invaderats av den framryckande japanska armén den 13 december 1937. State media estimated 10,000 people attended a ceremony in Nanjing to mark the 77th anniversary of the massacre, including ageing survivors – some in their 90s – of the Japanese invasion of the eastern city on 13 December 1937. The crowd sang a boisterous rendition of China’s national anthem at the ceremony broadcast live on CCTV state television, followed by a moment of silence, as a siren symbolising grief blared and the Chinese flag flew at half-mast under clear skies. “Anyone who tries to deny the massacre will not be allowed by history, the souls of the 300,000 deceased victims, 1.3 billion Chinese people and all people loving peace and justice in the world,” Xi said in a speech at the ceremony, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Under torsdagen gick polisen in för att avlägsna de sista ockupanterna från protestlägret i Admiralty i centrala Hongkong. 209 personer uppges ha gripits för att ha deltagit i en olaglig samling och förhindrat poliserna att utföra sitt arbete. Bland de sista ockupanterna på plats fanns bland annat en anarkistisk grupp som anklagats av andra demonstranter för att ha velat förvandla protesterna till en ”karneval”: The anarchists shared some of the protesters’ visions, like land justice and welfare overhaul, but not their desire to seek change through established channels. They were unenthusiastic about calls for democracy and electoral reform when Hong Kong’s capitalist system, which they describe as toxic, would remain. These divisions led to tensions, at times, with the more combative and doctrinaire activists in Mong Kok, who tended to regard the anarchists as lacking in zeal /…/ They accused the anarchists of trivializing the struggle and turning it into a carnival, and went so far as to distribute a poster that labelled Ah Lai a Chinese Communist Party informant.

I ett officiellt meddelande uppger centralregeringen att man ger sitt stöd till de lokala myndigheterna och ställer sig bakom avlägsnandet av ockupanterna. The central government ”fully agrees and firmly supports” the Hong Kong government and police’s decisions to stop these illegal activities, thereby maintaining social order and safeguarding the rule of law, said a statement from the State Council Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office.

I ett uttalande som kom efter torsdagens möte om den ekonomiska politiken uppger regeringen att man ska hålla tillväxten stabil och anpassa sig till ”det nya normalläget”, det vill säga en långsammare men mera ”högkvalitativ” tillväxt. At the meeting, the leaders including President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang stressed that the economy still faces many challenges and ”relatively big” downward pressures such as increasing difficulties for businesses and the emergence of economic risks /…/ The statement fell short of setting a target for 2015, which is usually made public in March, but said the authorities will be ”reasonable” in setting such goals.

CIA:s tortyrprogram, som återigen blivit aktuellt i och med den amerikanska senatens utredning, är baserat på ett program kallat SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) som skulle förbereda soldater i flygvapnet för den behandling de skulle bli utsatta för om de togs tillfånga av den kinesiska eller nordvietnamesiska fienden. Metoderna som CIA använde i sina förhör med misstänkta terrorister har alltså inspirerats av kinesiska tortyrmetoder som utvecklades för att få fram erkännanden, inte för att genom förhör få reda på ny information. The SERE program was established by the U.S. military in the 1950s to prepare its personnel at high risk of capture to resist torture at the hands of the enemy. Previously during the Korean War, Chinese and North Korean communists subjected American prisoners to brutal torture and propaganda measures. This harsh treatment took not only a physical and mental toll on American prisoners individually, it decimated morale and mutual support among the POWs as a group. Following termination of hostilities in Korea and the POWs’ release, 21 Americans refused repatriation, choosing instead to remain in China. Some former prisoners who returned to the U.S. were charged with crimes including treason, desertion and mistreatment of fellow prisoners.

USA lär sig tortyr av Kina och Kina lär sig kolonial repression av Frankrike. Urumqi, huvudstad i den autonoma regionen Xinjiang, har förbjudit bärandet av slöja på offentliga platser. Officials in Urumqi, the capital of the western Chinese region of Xinjiang, have approved a ban on Islamic veils in public, according to a message posted on Thursday on the Xinjiang regional government’s website. The citywide ban, approved on Wednesday, formalizes into law a set of rules that the city’s police officers have been trying to impose on Muslims. For months, signs in Muslim neighborhoods of Urumqi have warned women against wearing veils or long head scarves and men against growing long beards.

Efter sammandrabbningarna med polis i Hongkong under söndagen meddelar initiativtagarna till Occupy Central att de ”ger upp” och överlämnar sig till polisen. De uppmanar dessutom övriga demonstranter att avbryta protesterna. The announcement came after hundreds of pro-democracy protesters clashed with police late Sunday, leaving dozens injured in one of the worst nights of violence since rallies began over two months ago. “As we prepare to surrender, we three urge the students to retreat — to put down deep roots in the community and transform the movement,” said Occupy Central leader Benny Tai. Tai said the trio would surrender to police on Wednesday in a commitment to the rule of law and “the principle of peace and love.”

Efter att polisen under veckan röjt undan de båda protestlägren i Admiralty och Mong Kok, samlades under söndagen demonstranter i Hongkong för att omringa myndigheternas administrativa högkvarter. Efter sammandrabbningar med polis har flera demonstranter gripits, 40 enligt uppgifter till Associated Press. The crowds, chanting “Surround government headquarters!” and “Open the road!”, had blocked a major road running in front of the offices of Hong Kong’s leader in the Admiralty district, next to Hong Kong’s central business district, late on Friday. Hundreds of riot police scattered the crowds in chaotic scenes, forcing protesters back with pepper spray and batons, aimed at the backs and heads of those trying to scramble over walls to safety in a crush of bodies. A cloud of tear gas rose up in the middle of one particularly violent scuffle.

Kina ska införa ett system för insättningsgaranti, vilket öppnar upp för att överge regleringen av räntenivåerna och överlåta bestämmandet av dessa åt marknaden. The government will insure deposits of as much as 500,000 yuan ($81,367) per saver at each bank covered, the People’s Bank of China said in a draft rule on its website yesterday. It didn’t give a start date or detail what premiums banks may pay, saying only that they may differ depending on lenders’ management and risk conditions. The PBOC is seeking feedback through Dec. 30. Deposit insurance erodes an implicit government guarantee behind China’s state-controlled banks and clears the way for the nation to deregulate savings rates, increasing competition for funds. That may exacerbate a liquidity shortage at smaller banks and boost their chance of failure as savings shift to the biggest lenders.

Kinas Statsråd har offentliggjort ett lagförslag som har för avsikt att juridiskt definiera och förebygga våld i nära relationer, men förslaget får kritik för att det endast berör våld mellan gifta makar. Ouyang Yanwen, a professor at the Hunan Police Academy who specializes in domestic violence studies, said the exclusion is at odds with legislation in foreign countries, where de facto, same-sex relationships or former couples are mentioned. Violence in these relationships is as harmful as that among family members, he said. This is why the problem is often referred to as ”intimate violence” instead of ”domestic violence,” Ouyang said. ”A definition of domestic violence cannot be decided only by a marriage certificate because violence between an ex-wife and her ex-husband can exist for a long period of time,” he said.

Totalt greps 116 personer i samband med att polisen gick in för att rensa protestlägret i Mong Kok i Hongkong. Joshua Wong and Lester Shum were among 116 detained in Mong Kok for offences including unlawful assembly and assaulting or obstructing police on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, as a night of clashes – during which police used pepper spray solution – was followed by the removal of barricades from the occupied area on Nathan Road. But protesters flooded into another part of the district as night fell again, prompting fresh scuffles. Police hit out with batons and made several more arrests.

Kinahistorikern och specialisten på studentprotester Jeffrey Wasserstrom delar med sig av sina reflektioner efter att ha varit på plats i Hongkong, hos ockupanterna i protestlägren i Admiralty och Mong Kok. Wasserstroms skarpa iakttagelser ger en bra bild av hr proteströrelsens ”vardag” ser ut och av skillnaderna mellan de två protestlägren. When I finally made it to Mong Kok early on November 8, stopping off en route to Shenzhen, I realized that there were indeed many contrasts between it and Admiralty. The difference is due partly to geography: the encampment is on a regular street rather than a highway, which runs through a mixed residential and small business and shopping district rather than an area dominated by financial headquarters and government buildings /…/ In addition, while there was plenty of artwork to admire in Mong Kok, it felt like a place where the focus was on things other than creativity, where economic issues were equally or even more important in bringing people to the street than electoral and free speech concerns — though in Admiralty, too, the chasm between rich and poor was a concern expressed on many banners.

Under onsdagen — sextio dagar efter det att Occupy Central inleddes — gick polisen in för att avlägsna demonstranternas tältläger och blockader vid Mong Kok, centrala Hongkong. Trots att flera demonstranter greps av polisen, inklusive två representanter från studentorganisationerna som varit drivande under protesterna, möttes de av mycket lite motstånd av demonstranterna. Dessa lovar emellertid att ta tillbaka Mong Kok. University of Hong Kong ecology student Hau Cheuk-Yu said he would be heading out again tonight. ”I am sure more people will be come back out tonight,” said Hau, a volunteer. ”I will rest and maybe grab something to eat first and then tonight I’ll join them wherever they are … I still have no idea what the next step will be.” He managed to salvage one bag of supplies from the protest ground before police moved in to clear the area out. Protester Kumi Lam said it was essential that the movement kept Mong Kok as a bargaining chip. ”I will come back later. We cannot lose Mong Kok no matter what,” she said

Xie Zhenhua var ansvarig på den kinesiska sidan under de månader av förhandlingar som ledde fram till klimatavtalet som skrevs under av president Xi Jinping och USA:s president Barack Obama under APEC-mötet i Beijing (12 november). I en exklusiv intervju med Xie frågar finansmagasinet Caixin honom hur förhandlingarna gick till och hur han ser på arbetet för att minska utsläppen. We must expand the development of strategic emerging industries and high-tech industries. The tertiary sector will see greater growth. And in the secondary sector, technology and products related to low-carbon emissions and recycling will be better developed. The structure of energy consumption in the country will see major changes. In addition, the country’s forest reserves will be greatly expanded, leading to big changes for the forestry industry. Now, some areas have wide forest-covered areas but their volume of trees is low, suggesting that they need to change the structure of their forestry. In the future, quality will be more important than quantity.

Sju studenter som skött den fängslade ekonomiprofessorn Ilham Tothis webbsida har ställts inför rätta för separatism i staden Urumqi i den autonoma regionen Xinjiang. Li Fangping, a defence lawyer for the economics professor Ilham Tohti, said the students were certain to be found guilty by the Urumqi intermediate people’s court, the same court that sentenced their teacher to life imprisonment in September. The economist is known for his outspoken criticism of the government and its ethnic policy. “The question is how many years these students will be jailed,” Li said. “But we don’t expect them to be jailed as long as their teacher.”

I måndags presenterade Kinas Statsråd ett lagförslag om att förbjuda rökning inomhus och på vissa offentliga platser samt att förbjuda reklam för tobak. Men upprätthållandet av en sådan lag kan bli problematiskt. Strategies on getting legislation effectively implemented is a big issue for the law enforcement to ponder, experts say. According to the draft, managers of public places will be directly responsible for preventing people from smoking in the stipulated places, Wang Qingbin said. Therefore, the government should explore ways to stimulate the public places managers’ anti-smoking initiatives and come up with effective measures to supervise the managers, he said.

Lars Vargö sammanfattar läget för relationen mellan Kina och Japan efter att president Xi Jinping mötte premiärminister Shinzo Abe under APEC-mötet i Beijing. In spite of the recent meeting between Abe Shinzô and Xi Jinping, historical grievances, ongoing territorial disputes, and hostile domes- tic constituencies continue to bedevil bilateral relations. Instead of redressing perceived past historical injustices by tools other than negotiation, both sides should use this meeting as a stepping stone to build trust, realizing that they have more to lose than gain by failing to talk.

Efter en rad uppmaningar och hot från polis och myndigheter under de senaste veckorna (12 november) gick domstolsutsända under gårdagen in för att rensa bort delar av protestlägret i centrala Hongkong. En grupp demonstranter reagerade genom att kasta sten mot Hongkongs lagstiftande råds kontor. About 100 riot police with helmets, batons and shields stood guard outside the government building in the early hours of Wednesday, facing off with protesters who are demanding free elections for the city’s next leader in 2017. “Police retreat!” the protesters chanted. It was the first time protesters had broken into a key public building, defying the expectations of many political analysts who had predicted that Hong Kong’s most tenacious and protracted protest movement would slowly wind down

Över tjugo olika reformåtgärder som har testats i Shanghais frihandelszon under det gångna året ska nu prövas i andra delar av landet. The measures range from looser restrictions on investment and trade to trailblazing pilots enhancing the use of yuan overseas, the Shanghai government says. As of November 1, their number is at least 22. Added to the list recently was one referred to as ”two-way cross-border yuan cash pooling,” which allows for more flexible yuan movements across borders and was limited to multinational corporations in the FTZ. Under the program, big corporations can move yuan capital across borders between their subsidiaries and affiliated companies without having to report each of the transfers to Chinese regulators and gain their approval first.

President Xi Jinping har fyra råd för att skydda världsekonomin från finanskriser. Firstly, the world should continue to reform the international financial system and speed up the International Monetary Fund quota reform, Xi told the second day of the G20 Summit. Secondly, the world should enhance global cooperation in collecting tax, crack down on international tax evasion and help the developing countries and low-income countries improve their abilities in collecting and managing tax, Xi said. Thirdly, the world should deepen cooperation in anti-corruption, Xi said. Fourthly, the world should exert more efforts to deal with the issue of development and facilitate the developing countries to develop their economies by establishing the concept of promoting development through growth while stimulating growth through development, he said.

President Xi Jinping och Australiens premiärminister Tony Abbott har enats om ett frihandelsavtal mellan de båda länderna som öppnar upp den kinesiska marknaden ytterligare för australiensiska export och avlägsnar hinder för kinesiska investeringar i Australien. Australia is attempting to transition from a reliance on exports of minerals such as coal and iron ore to expanding its food and agricultural exports to a growing Asian middle class, moving from a ”mining boom” to a ”dining boom”. China is already Australia’s top trading partner, with two-way trade of around A$150 billion ($130 billion) in 2013. Paul Glasson, the National vice President of the Australia China Business Council, hailed the much-improved access for up to 40 service industries including health, law and aged care, as well as for agricultural products such as dairy, rice, wheat, wool and cotton.

Xi Jinpings deltagande vid G20-toppmötet föranledde samlingar av både demonstranter och sympatisörer. Pro-Beijing supporters wearing red and waving China flags were on the lawn in front of Parliament House, separated by barricades from their opponents chanting “Xi Jinping not welcome” and “Down with China.” Xi may give details on a free-trade deal in the speech at 3:35 p.m. in Canberra after he earlier concluded negotiations on the agreement with Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

De studentrepresentanter från den hongkongnesiska proteströrelsen Occupy Central som tidigare tillkännagivit att de planerade att ta sig till Beijing för att försöka få till stånd ett möte med landets ledare stoppades som väntat redan på flygplatsen i Hongkong. Cathay Pacific airline staff at Hong Kong’s airport told Nathan Law, Eason Chung and Alex Chow of the Hong Kong Federation of Students that the Chinese govermnent had cancelled their travel permits and refused to issue them with boarding passes for their flight to Beijing /…/ “Dialogue is important for resolving the current [situation], but it depends on whether Beijing has the initiative to open talks with students,” Chow said before being turned back.

Kvinnorättsaktivisten Ye Haiyan som greps i Wuhan den tredje november hölls av polisen fram den tolfte november för att ”uppsåtligt ha blottat sin kropp på offentlig plats” i form av ett foto som spreds som del utav en protestaktion på kinesiska sociala nätverkstjänsten Weibo. One of her actions was posting a nude photo of herself on Weibo, with a few A4 sheets covering parts of her body that read, “Do you really not know the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women(CEDAW)?” “Wake up, Chinese women!” She made it clear that she did this to raise awareness of the CEDAW and the UN periodical review.

Intervju med en taiwanesisk affärsman om livet som Konfucius arvtagare och konfucianismens fortsatta relevans för Kina. After decades of cultural ruptures, mainland China has once again in recent years recognized the importance of Confucian thought and culture to social development. Of course this is a good phenomenon. I hope that Confucianism in mainland China will not only revive but continue to develop and spread for the sake of peaceful development worldwide.

Ian Johnson om det digitala nyhetsbrevet Remembrance (记忆) som blandar minnesanteckningar från och historieskrivning om Maos Kina, i synnerhet Kulturrevolutionen. Remembrance is part of the rise of unofficial memory in China, a trend that resembles the appearance in the Soviet Union during the 1980s of groups like Memorial, a historical research society that helped undermine the regime by uncovering its troubled past /…/ Remembrance publishes articles on some of the most controversial topics in the Communist era. These include articles looking at the still-murky plot by Mao’s favorite general, Lin Biao, to depose him in 1971, accounts of political campaigns, and histories of strikes in the 1950s—the supposed golden era of Communist rule when the party claims it enjoyed mass support.

Trots att Kinas och USA:s överenskommelse för att begränsa sin klimatpåverkan (12 november) kan ses som ett viktigt steg i rätt riktning, är de båda ländernas mål för lågt satta för att undvika en två graders ökning av världstemperaturen och ”katastrofala följder” enligt beräkningar gjorda av det Internationella energirådet. So what does matter about this ”landmark” pact? The symbolism of the world’s two largest polluters reaching an agreement more than a year ahead of the Paris Climate Summit is meaningful and should energize talks. However you look at it, the spoiler of Copenhagen has come a long way and is demonstrating new global leadership. And perhaps even more meaningful, by setting targets that have per capita emissions converging, the United States has backed away from one of the major sticking points in negotiations with developing countries.

Under sitt möte i onsdags diskuterade president Xi Jinping och president Barack Obama förutom klimatfrågor även visumregler, cyberspionage och amerikanska spionflyg. De båda männen hade också ett ”väldigt hälsosamt utbyte” kring mänskliga rättigheter. Man utväxlade även officiella ställningstaganden kring protesterna i Hongkong. “[These are] rights we believe are the birthright of all men and women wherever they live – whether it is in New York or Paris or Hong Kong,” [Obama] said pointedly. Chinese media and authorities have repeatedly suggested that foreign forces have stirred up the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. The US leader said he had been unequivocal in saying that his country had no such involvement and that the issues were for the people of Hong Kong and China to decide. But he added that elections in the region should be “transparent, fair and reflective of the opinions of people there”. […] Xi responded: “Hong Kong affairs are exclusively China’s internal affairs and foreign countries should not interfere in any form or fashion. “OccupyCentral is an illegal movement in Hong Kong. We are firmly supportive of the efforts of the government of the special administrative region to handle the situation … It goes without saying that law and order must be maintained in any place.”

Ännu en specialistdiskussion från ChinaFile, denna gång om Xi Jinpings kulturpolitik. Statsvetaren Stanley Rosen: China has to decide whether to privilege ideology or the audience. Based on discussions with film officials, I would argue that while Xi has now made his position known (biaotai, 表态), the goals of competing successfully against Hollywood domestically and seeking to enhance soft power abroad will, at least in film, trump ideological considerations.

En intervju med kommunistpartiets tidigare generalsekreterare Hu Yaobangs (1915-1989) son Hu Deping om fallet Bo Xilai och politisk reform i Kina. Reform and opening has proceeded for more than thirty years now, and its now entered a period of impasse, the deep end period, and continuing the top-level design of reform exactly means ruling the nation according to the law. Various different interest groups in our society need to be protected by the law. If tensions emerge, legal methods should be used to mediate these tensions. For example, if the gap between rich and poor is substantial, then certain types of taxation can be considered, and limitations can be considered for various unregulated actions in the market.

President Xi Jinping mötte sin amerikanske motpart Barack Obama under onsdagen, i samband med toppmötet mellan medlemmarna i Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). De två ledarna försäkrade varandra om att andra länder inte har något att oroa sig för från Kina, vars växande makt kommer att gynna omvärlden, och USA har givetvis inga som helst avsikter att hålla Kina tillbaka. ”China would like to work with the United States to implement the principle of no conflict, no confrontation, mutual respect, cooperation and common prosperity and make new type of major-country relations between the two countries produce more benefits to people in the two countries and the world,” Xi said. ”I will make joint efforts with President Obama.”

Intervju med den brittiske regissören Matthew Torne om dennes nya dokumentärfilm. Residents of the former colony were supposed to care more about commerce than politics. The heart of the city was supposed to reside in the heights of its sparkling, climate-defying office towers, not in its sweaty streets. And, after 1997, China’s leaders expected Hong Kong’s orderly, industrious residents freed from colonial rule to run ever more joyously into the welcoming arms of their motherland, as the first half of the “One Country, Two Systems” equation inexorably eclipsed the second.That this has not come to pass is less surprising to monitors of the complex and evolving question of Hong Kong people’s identity, which in recent years, and especially among people under the age of 30, has drifted ever further from the path prescribed by Beijing. That drift and the young Hong Kongers who feel its pull most keenly are the subjects of Matthew Torne’s feature documentary Lessons in Dissent, which will make its U.S. debut at the New American Foundation in New York on November 6th.

Både Kina och USA meddelar att när fredspristagaren Barack Obama kommer till Beijing för Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum i november kommer han sätta sig ned med Xi Jinping för att prata om ”kriget mot terrorismen”. Cooperation like sharing intelligence will be difficult. And China will not commit troops or weapons. But simply seeing eye-to-eye on the problem of Islamic State can pay political dividends, experts and diplomats say, as the United States launches air strikes against the ultra-radicals in Iraq and Syria and China faces condemnation of its hardline tactics in its western Xinjiang region.”You’re mostly likely to see China sit back and not criticize the United States. That is what cooperation looks like,” said Philip Potter, an assistant professor at the University of Virginia who studies global terrorism.

Det kinesiska åklagarämbetets förslag om en ny statlig instans för att bekämpa problemet med korruption som är så allvarligt att det enligt den högste åklagaren Qiu Xueqiang ”saknar motstycke”. The new agency will be better organized and better able to help the SPP handle major cases and break institutional obstacles, he said. China established the anti-corruption bureau under the SPP in 1995. After almost 20 years of development, it struggled to meet the demands for anti-corruption work under the new situation due to poor effectiveness in handling corruption cases, Qiu added. The new agency is another step for strengthened effort to crack down on corrupt officials ever since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in November 2012.

Shanghais borgmästare Yang Xiong säger att staden kommer att satsa för att skynda på reformerna inom frihandelszonen som inrättades i september förra året. Mayor Yang Xiong said the government would work towards making the yuan — also known as the renminbi (RMB) — freely convertible, among other financial liberalization plans for the FTZ, but gave no timetable. “We will gradually put in place an institutional and regulatory framework to enable the convertibility of the RMB under the capital account … so that the financial sector can better serve the real economy,” he told business leaders in a speech.

Om den kinesiska skyskrapsexplosionen och framtiden för landets vertikala urbanisering: Suzhou will soon boast the world’s third-tallest building, the 700m Zhongnan Centre. Other Chinese cities joining the upward rush include Shenzhen, Wuhan, Tianjin and Shenyang. By 2020, China is set to be home to six of the world’s 10 tallest buildings, although none will top the globe’s current highest, the 828m Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Försöken att få bukt med Kinas svåra luftföroreningar skapar problem för de kinesiska stålverken. För att göra luften lite mer uthärdlig för de utländska gästerna under APEC-toppmötet kommer till exempel stålverken runt huvudstaden att stänga tillfälligt: Dozens of steel mills in industrial areas straddling the capital are set to shut from Nov. 1 to cut smog before leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting. China had imposed similar shutdowns on industry during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. With air pollution readings hitting an eight-month high in mid-October, the government is aiming to clear the skies and avoid another embarrassment after the city’s marathon this month, where many participants ran with gas masks. Forecasters have warned of the smog worsening this week.

Vad innebär egentligen ”socialistiskt lagstyre med kinesiska förtecken” och vad har det för koppling till Mao Zedongs upplyftande av distriktet Fengqiao i Zhejiang till modell för hur ”reaktionära element” skulle hanteras?The “Fengqiao experience” (枫桥经验) remains a fresh approach today, full of possibility precisely because it pays attention to the use of rule of law methods to dissolve tensions, so that “the demands of the masses are resolved reasonably, unreasonable demands dealt with through targeted education, and illegal conduct handled properly in accord with the law” — and the two dilemmas are resolved within the framework of rule of law.